Anthony Bateman is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University, UK. He is co-editor of Sporting Sounds: Relationships Between Sport and Music.

Prize: Shortlisted for the Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History 2010 'Cricket has been political ever since rich men placed bets on games, or Gentlemen (superior amateurs) and Players (inferior professionals) took the field together. But the politics of cricket runs deeper than that, as Anthony Bateman shows in this wide-ranging exploration. Cricket, Literature and Culture is a ground-breaking study of cricket in the English public schools, in the journalism of Neville Cardus, in the Bodyline controversy, and in the writings of C. L. R. James, amongst much else. If you want to know about the politics of the off-drive, this brilliant book is for you.' Alan Munton, University of Exeter, UK ’...unquestionably a much-needed and welcome addition to the study of sport in literature. Those unfamiliar with cricket-lit (and cricket in general) will find Bateman's study to be a very accessible introduction. Devotees will find Bateman's critical examination of the history and aesthetics of cricket-lit to be one of the more thorough treatments of the genre to date.... this is a book that was sorely needed, and Bateman has filled that void well. The twenty-three-page bibliography alone will prove to be an invaluable resource to future students of the genre or for anyone with a general interest in learning more about the history and literature of cricket... Bateman has hopefully opened the door for others who can follow his lead and give the genre of cricket literature the attention it so justly deserves.’ The Arete listserv, Sport Literature Association ’Bateman’s work should be read not simply by historians of cricket and/or national identity, but by any sports historian (and, indeed, by those in many other historical fields) with a serious interest in reading texts critically and in rethinking or refining their own approaches to their subject matter. Here is a "literary turn" absolutely worth the taking’. Sport in History '[Bateman] offers up a closely argu

• Chapter 1 IntroductionWriting the Cricket Field; Chapter 1a 'More Mighty Than the Bat, the Pen, ...': Culture, Hegemony and the Literaturisation of Cricket; Chapter 2 'England Over'?: Cricket and Literature in the Inter-War Years; Chapter 3 : Neville Cardus and Cultural Crisis; Chapter 4 Cricket, Literature and Empire 1850'“1939; Chapter 5 'From Far it Look Like Politics': C.L.R. James and the Canon; Chapter 6 'The Play is a Poem'?;

Anthony Bateman is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University, UK. He is co-editor of Sporting Sounds: Relationships Between Sport and Music.

Prize: Shortlisted for the Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History 2010 'Cricket has been political ever since rich men placed bets on games, or Gentlemen (superior amateurs) and Players (inferior professionals) took the field together. But the politics of cricket runs deeper than that, as Anthony Bateman shows in this wide-ranging exploration. Cricket, Literature and Culture is a ground-breaking study of cricket in the English public schools, in the journalism of Neville Cardus, in the Bodyline controversy, and in the writings of C. L. R. James, amongst much else. If you want to know about the politics of the off-drive, this brilliant book is for you.' Alan Munton, University of Exeter, UK ’...unquestionably a much-needed and welcome addition to the study of sport in literature. Those unfamiliar with cricket-lit (and cricket in general) will find Bateman's study to be a very accessible introduction. Devotees will find Bateman's critical examination of the history and aesthetics of cricket-lit to be one of the more thorough treatments of the genre to date.... this is a book that was sorely needed, and Bateman has filled that void well. The twenty-three-page bibliography alone will prove to be an invaluable resource to future students of the genre or for anyone with a general interest in learning more about the history and literature of cricket... Bateman has hopefully opened the door for others who can follow his lead and give the genre of cricket literature the attention it so justly deserves.’ The Arete listserv, Sport Literature Association ’Bateman’s work should be read not simply by historians of cricket and/or national identity, but by any sports historian (and, indeed, by those in many other historical fields) with a serious interest in reading texts critically and in rethinking or refining their own approaches to their subject matter. Here is a "literary turn" absolutely worth the taking’. Sport in History '[Bateman] offers up a closely argu

• Chapter 1 IntroductionWriting the Cricket Field; Chapter 1a 'More Mighty Than the Bat, the Pen, ...': Culture, Hegemony and the Literaturisation of Cricket; Chapter 2 'England Over'?: Cricket and Literature in the Inter-War Years; Chapter 3 : Neville Cardus and Cultural Crisis; Chapter 4 Cricket, Literature and Empire 1850'“1939; Chapter 5 'From Far it Look Like Politics': C.L.R. James and the Canon; Chapter 6 'The Play is a Poem'?;